


False God

by stilinskitrash



Category: The Folk of the Air - Holly Black
Genre: Bondage, Canon Compliant, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Light Angst, Light BDSM, Light Dom/sub, One Shot, Oral Sex, Rope Bondage, not beta read we die like men, this is so self indulgent its not funny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-20 04:50:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20669609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stilinskitrash/pseuds/stilinskitrash
Summary: “Give me your hands.” He says, propped up over her. She’s caged in, but she’s not scared. The old, unforgiving part of her tells her that she should be. Foolish, human girl. What would Cardan get out of this other than pleasure?She frowns at him, “I don’t understand.”Slender fingers trace circles on the skin of her palm, and her skin goosebumps. He’s asking for control that Jude isn’t sure she’s willing to give.





	False God

**Author's Note:**

> set sometime in the middle of the wicked king before jude is taken to the undersea, but idk tbh just forget the logistics lmao... hope cardan and jude aren't too OOC, wanted to explore a bit more vulnerability between them but still keep the enemies to lovers goodness and jude's internal conflict over her relationship with cardan and what it all ~means~ oh and the title is definitely in reference to the taylor swift song because how could i not after "my sweet villain, my darling god"  
(also, cardan's tail is mentioned ONCE because honestly... cursed)

Kissing Cardan is a more dizzying drunkenness than anything faerie wine can induce. It’s as if they’ve both been starved for air, and the only oxygen they can get is from one another. Their breaths mingle, flowing heavily in sync, lips never leaving skin. Only the two of them exist. Only the two of them matter. And it’s terrifying, because Jude knows she’s already falling and that her hand has slipped off the ledge she could have used to haul herself out of. 

_ I hate you _ has lost meaning between them. She knows that he shouldn’t kiss her harder when she says it, he shouldn’t rock his body tighter against her and moan into her mouth. It shouldn’t give her a rush, because at some point it was true. Now, she isn’t sure of anything but that she doesn’t want this to end.

He pushes her down on his bed, in the room he was once nearly assassinated in. His hands are cold and smooth as they travel up the length of her exposed torso, his grip tightening when it reaches her hips. Her dress has long since been discarded. Cardan’s night coloured shirt hangs off his sharp shoulders. Jude reaches out and tugs him closer, only to have him snarl quietly in her ear. He removes her hands from his neck and presses her arms against the bed.

“Give me your hands.” He says, propped up over her. She’s caged in, but she’s not scared. The old, unforgiving part of her tells her that she should be.  _ Foolish, human girl. _ What would Cardan get out of this other than pleasure? 

She frowns at him, “I don’t understand.” 

Slender fingers trace circles on the skin of her palm, and her skin goosebumps. He’s asking for control that Jude isn’t sure she’s willing to give.

Cardan leans down and kisses the inside of her wrist. “I gave you control over my words, my actions, my kingdom. So, give me your hands, darling Jude.”

Her heat moves impulsively towards his groin without thinking. He laughs when she flushes, pressing a kiss to her other wrist. There’s something thrillingly scary about the idea of Cardan pinning her there. If it were any other situation, Jude knows she’d hate it. And even though she doesn’t trust Cardan’s politics or motives, a part of her isn’t afraid of his actions in bed. It’s between them. There’s no third party that she should worry about. And she’s been here enough times now to have confidence in the fact that he won’t hurt her.

His hands slowly intertwine with hers, raised above her head as she lies propped up on the pillows. Then he brings her legs together between his. She can’t touch him, she can hardly move except to raise her hips and tilt her chin. Cardan grins.

“Is this okay?” he asks earnestly. A kiss to her temple. A kiss to her cheek. A kiss to the corner of her mouth. The tempo has slowed down and thrown Jude off balance. He’s asking for permission, checking if she’s fine with this, and even that has her blinking as if in a haze.

She tests his grip on her hands. If she were to really try, she could definitely rip herself away from him. She isn’t  _ trapped _ . Not really.

“Yes,” she breathes, and Cardan pushes his body flush against her. His kisses are heady and slow, and their heats press against each other until Jude begins to squirm with impatience. She needs more of him.

But him pinning her down is only the start of what Cardan has in mind. He releases her, and Jude feels the cold from the lack of touch instantly. She lies still as he rises off the bed.

“Where-- where are you going?” she asks, trying to sound disinterested. Like she doesn’t care if he stays or goes.

Cardan pulls the silk ribbons off the posts of his bed. The heavy curtains they were keeping tied back fall into place on either side of the bed, shuttering her in. He pushes them back and gets up on the bed beside her again. All of her nerves are on edge. Jude watches him warily, aware of the vulnerability of all of this. Her, almost naked and lying on his bed. Cardan, in control without prompt from Jude.

He presses his lips hard against hers, drinking her in. Jude follows his mouth when he pulls away. She frowns involuntarily and Cardan laughs, one hand on her thigh.

“I’m going to tie you up,” he says, voice even and steady. But the way he speaks is like honey. Jude wants another taste. “I’m going to use these ribbons, and I’m going to tie you to my headboard. Do you give me permission, my seneschal?” Cardan grins wickedly, but she sees the honesty underneath. He wants the verbal confirmation.

The idea of it stirs something in her stomach that is both thrilling and unnerving. If she’s tied up, she really will have given up a moment of control. But could one moment really be so bad as to lose? 

She clenches her jaw, “I do.” 

He nips her lip as he kisses her and squeezes her thigh.

“Arms above your head,” he instructs, and Jude obliges him.

Cardan takes her left wrist first, pressing it to a post on his headboard and beginning to wrap the ribbon around it. The silk is cold and smooth, and Cardan ties it just tight enough that when she tugs it doesn’t come loose. He repeats the same on her right wrist, and straddles Jude between his legs to do so. She breathes in his smile as she tries to keep the rise and fall of her chest even.

“There,” he smiles, and places a kiss to her exposed collarbone. She’s wearing a bra from the mortal world, and feels a little self conscious about it. It must look ridiculous to him. But, no matter -- he strips it from her only moments later. 

“I want to ravish you,” he murmurs in her ear, “until you understand just how crazy you drive me.”

Jude’s hips buck as he presses against her again, his length hard against the inside of her thighs. He’s left her in just her underwear. A thin, simple lace piece.

“Stop  _ teasing _ ,” she grits through her teeth, and her wrists twist and turn in their bonds. “You drive me crazy enough, already.”

He hums against a tender spot of skin on her neck, before sucking hard on it. “Hmm, we’ll see about that.”

Cardan shrugs off the shirt that had hung off his frame, exposing his pale chest. He’s not muscled, because he was hardly raised how to fight tooth and nail. He’s lived a pampered life, a lavish life. He fights with his cruelty. Words and commands that mean he rarely ever has to get his own hands dirty. But there’s still tone, smooth carved lines on his chest and torso. Every inch of him is refined to perfection. She hardly believes he’s real.

He sheds his pants and Jude tries to smother the hitch in her breathing. She hates showing him how he really affects her. Usually, they’re a flurry of limbs and kisses that moves too fiercely and fast for her to take all of him in. Now, she has nothing but time, as she lies tied to the bed. She studies him as he studies her, in all their vulnerability. 

Slowly, he trails a line of kisses down Jude’s stomach, all the way to the line of her underwear. He hooks a finger underneath it, tugging at the fabric.

“Cardan,” she says, voice quieter than she would have hoped. She hadn’t even meant to say anything. His name just slips out.

“Yes, my love?” he drawls the word like a joke, but the way it makes Jude feel isn’t funny. She’s burning all over. He pulls her underwear down until it sits at her ankles.

She narrows her eyes at him. Her mouth parts as she readies to chastise him, but his mouth descends on her heat and Jude sees stars. Her head feels heavy and light at the same time. Jude can’t help but rise to meet the movements of his tongue, and when he adds two fingers --  _ heaven save her _ . A climax is building higher and higher in the pit of her stomach. She’s spiralling, and he’s there ready to catch her. Everytime she makes to speak her voice catches in her throat.

“ _ Cardan, _ ” she says again, more insistent. “I’m-- I’m gonna--”

He removes himself from her before she can explode into her high. The fireworks in her head dim.

“Not yet,” he smirks. He’s on his knees over her, and her body feels infinitely small under his power. He’s hardly bigger than she is, but it’s more about what he  _ radiates _ . Confidence and control -- cruelty, but not in the way she used to see it. This isn’t malicious cruelty. He’s being playfully cruel, she scoffs mentally. Old habits die hard.

“I hate--”

“You can’t stand the idea of not hating me,” he interrupts, hands on either side of her waist. Her arms are starting to go a little numb from being raised above her head. “Or not being in control. Not knowing all the pieces at play. Not knowing  _ what _ the next play is. You can’t let  _ go. _ ”

“There’s nothing wrong with staying ahead,” she rebukes. “It’s not exactly like I was given a headstart in this world.” She’ll always be behind, because she’ll never be one of them.

Cardan shakes his head, “you don’t get it. You’ve already outmaneuvered some of the best of our kind. You were… an excellent student. You’re an exceptional swordsman. You weren’t born with gifts or faerie magic, yet here you are. The secret ruler of Elfhame.”

She almost shivers at his words. So much praise at once out of his mouth is alien and unfamiliar. It feels like a trick., but she can’t find the joke in his words. Her heat is still slowly throbbing from being so close to a climax.

“So what? I’m still mortal.” she deadpans.

“Jude,” he sighs, staring at his own hands as they trace patterns lightly across her breasts. “I wish… that you could see what I see.”

His touch returns, stroking where she’s soaking wet and needy. Her breath hitches. If she saw herself the way Cardan did, surely she would just come to hate herself? She’s working hard to decipher what he’s saying whilst maneuvering through the waves of pleasure he’s causing. All of the thoughts mingle and contort in her mind until all she can think is  _ Cardan _ . She remembers the book,  _ Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland _ , and the piece of paper with her name scrawled on it so many times.  _ Jude, Jude, Jude, Jude, Jude… _

This time, when she feels that familiar building sensation, Cardan doesn’t hold back. She watches as he strokes himself a few times, his eyes locked on hers even if she can’t take her eyes off his length. She’s curling in on herself against his fingers, bucking to hit just the right spot. He removes his hand but wastes no time filling the space with himself, roughly pushing in so Jude’s head hits the headboard with a  _ smack _ . She hardly feels the pain when there’s so many other sensations happening lower down. It’s dizzying and electrifying and her legs wrap around his in the place of her arms that she can’t use to bring him closer. The high of the moment makes the confusion and shame afterwards worth it -- usually.

Cardan controls the pace, hard and even. Jude’s back arches as he takes her breasts between his hands and palms them headily. Her head spins. The bed creaks as her arms pull against their bonds, and she suddenly wonders if they could be loud enough to be heard through the walls. Considering that Cardan isn’t particularly vocal, she hopes not. But the shallow thud of wood against wall is gaining in volume and frequency as Cardan’s thrusts hasten.

He pulls in closer to her and bows his head so his dark curls fall into her vision. He smells like cinnamon and cardamom and the slick sweat that covers both of them by now. His eyes flutter shut. 

“You’re mine,” he breathes, hot against her ear. “Who else could touch you like this? Make you feel like this? Who else could you trust like this?”

_ Trust is a big word _ , she thinks. But he’s not entirely off the mark. She’d never have trusted someone like Locke to tie her up like this. The leverage she has against Cardan comforts her, because even if she doesn’t currently have  _ physical  _ control, she knows they still have their agreement. This is just an extension of it. A different version of power. She can’t trust Cardan on the throne -- but she’s managed to find some trust with him in bed. Maybe that’s a little twisted. It feels pretty good right now, though.

She’s so full of him, and the heat inside her has become a raging fire. They both burn. Cardan’s nails rake down her back and across her shoulders as he presses his chest to hers, pushing himself as far as he can go. Jude’s breathing shallows as she feels the big  _ O  _ rising deep within. 

“And,” she tries to suppress a groan as his teeth nip at her already sensitive and bruised neck, “you’re  _ mine _ .”

Cardan’s body tenses, and he clutches onto her as he rides through his climax. Jude isn’t long after, falling apart in waves as he holds her so close that she’s struggling to pick out where he ends and she begins. Their chests heave in sync. He leaves lavishly slow kisses on the crook of her neck and line of her jaw before detaching himself from her. He’s practically glowing and Jude’s chest feels heavy.

The pain in her arms hits her suddenly, as the high begins to fade. They’re almost entirely numb. Without prompt, Cardan reaches for her wrists and begins to untie the silk ribbons. Her arms are freed and she rubs her wrists, which are red from where she was pulling at the bonds. Judee slouches against the pillows in a bit of a haze. She  _ really  _ hopes the marks fade soon. Love bites and red wrists is… a  _ lot _ to try and explain away tomorrow.

She expects that to be it. Cardan will get up, get dressed, make some snarky remarks about her and leave. It’s fine. That’s how it is. But he takes one of her wrists from her hands and raises it to his lips. He kisses it gingerly, fluttering his pretty lashes as he looks down at her.

“Cardan,” she mutters his name but can’t find the words to follow it up. He picks up her other wrist and repeats the actions, pressing soft kisses to the raw and red skin.

He drops her wrist gently then steps back and off the bed. Jude pulls the bed sheet across her self consciously. 

“That was fun,” he says, then stares at her like he’s waiting for her to say something too.

She nods numbly, “it was.”  _ It was.  _ She’s not lying. It was exhilarating and hot and new. She liked it. 

He turns to his wardrobe and pulls out a satin green robe. “I was serious, by the way.”

Jude frowns, “about?”

Cardan shrugs the robe on and makes for the bedroom door. His hair is mussed and his cheeks are a little flushed. It’s an obvious post-sex look. She makes a note to leave it a good while before she follows him out of the room.

“Wishing that you could see what I see,” he shrugs simply. 

It feels a little harder to breathe again.  _ Stop not making sense _ , she wants to scream. He’s so confusing and overwhelming sometimes, but Jude’s finding it increasingly hard to stay away. Not that she could, anyway, due to the fact that she has to keep an eye on him.

“Oh,” is all she says. Her cheeks are hot.

Cardan’s fingers are wrapped around the door handle when he turns back to her abruptly. He flashes her a wicked grin.

“And that you’re mine.”

**Author's Note:**

> follow my writing twitter [cvbeswaters](https://twitter.com/cvbeswaters) or come shout at me on tumblr at [virginiakings](https://virginiakings.tumblr.com)  
feedback and kudos are always appreciated !!


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